Ezekiel 20:18-26

18“‘Then I said to their children in the wilderness, “Don’t follow the statutes of your fathers, defile yourselves with their idols, or keep their ordinances.

19I am the Lord your God. Follow my statutes, keep my ordinances, and practice them.

20Keep my Sabbaths holy, and they will be a sign between me and you, so you may know that I am the Lord your God.”

21“‘But the children rebelled against me. They did not follow my statutes or carefully keep my ordinances — the person who does them will live by them. They also profaned my Sabbaths. So I considered pouring out my wrath on them and exhausting my anger against them in the wilderness.

22But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, so that it would not be profaned in the eyes of the nations in whose sight I brought them out.

23However, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would disperse them among the nations and scatter them among the countries.

24For they did not practice my ordinances but rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were fixed on their fathers’ idols.

25I also gave them statutes that were not good and ordinances they could not live by.

26When they sacrificed every firstborn in the fire, I defiled them through their gifts in order to devastate them so they would know that I am the Lord.’